Systole and diastole, in prosody, systole is the shortening of a syllable that is by pronunciation or by position long. Systole is most often used to adjust the rhythm of a line to achieve metrical regularity. The word is from the Greek systolḗ, meaning, literally, “contraction.”

Diastole, the opposite of systole, is the lengthening of a short quantity or syllable for metric irregularity. The word is from the Greek diastolḗ, meaning “the act of expanding or dilating.”